The Story of One Short Period in the Life of One Socialist Party

#PUBLICATION NOTE

This edition of The Story of One Short Period in the Life of One Socialist Party has been translated, prepared, and revised for digital publication by the Institute of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism under the Central Committee of the Communist Party in Switzerland on the basis of the edition published in the Collected Works of Lenin, Fourth English Edition, Volume 23, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1964.

#INTRODUCTION NOTE

This is an article written by Comrade Lenin in Zurich, Switzerland in late February 1917. It was first published in 1931 in the Lenin Miscellany, Volume 27.

#Workers and oppressed people of the world, unite!

#THE STORY OF ONE SHORT PERIOD IN THE LIFE OF ONE SOCIALIST PARTY

#Nikolaj Lenin
#Late February 1917

#★

7th of January, 1917. Meeting of the Swiss Social-Democratic Party Executive. Centrist leader R. Grimm unites with social-patriotic leaders to postpone indefinitely the Party Congress (originally appointed for the 11th of February, 1917 to discuss the war issue).

Nobs, Platten, Naine, and others protest and vote against.

Postponement rouses the greatest indignation among class-conscious workers.

9th of January, 1917. Publication of majority and minority resolutions.1 Clear statement against homeland defence totally lacking in majority draft (Affolter and Schmid were against this), but §3 does contain this demand: «Party parliamentary deputies shall be under obligation to reject, stating their principled grounds, all war demands and credits.» That should be especially noted!

23rd of January, 1917. The Zurich Volksrecht [People's Right] puts the case for a referendum.2 Sharply, but quite correctly, it characterizes the postponement as a victory of Grütlianism over Socialism.

Leaders infuriated by referendum proposal. Grimm in the Berner Tagwacht [Bernese Guardian], Jacques Schmid (Olten) in the Neue Freie Zeitung3 [New Free Newspaper], F. Schneider in the Basler Vorwärts4 [Basle Forward], and, besides these «Centrists», social-patriot Huber in the St. Gallen Volksstimme [People's Voice] — all heap insults and threats on the referendum initiators.

R. Grimm stands at the head of this unholy crusade, making a special effort to intimidate the «youth organization» and promising to come out against it at the next Party Congress.

Hundreds and hundreds of workers in German- and French-speaking Switzerland eagerly sign referendum papers. Naine wires Münzenberg that one cantonal secretariat will, in all probability, support referendum.

22nd of January, 1917. The Bernese Guardian and the People's Right carry a statement by National Council member Gustav Müller. He presents the Party a veritable ultimatum, stating on behalf of his group (he writes: «our group») that he will resign from the National Council because he cannot accept «the principle of rejecting war credits».

26th of January, 1917. In his fourth People's Right article, Greulich presents the same ultimatum to the Party, saying that he will «naturally» resign if the Party Congress approves §3 of the majority resolution.5

27th of January, 1917. E. Nobs says in an editorial comment (On the Referendum) that under no circumstances can he endorse the referendum motivation.6

Platten is silent.

31st of January, 1917. The Secretariat decides to convene the Party Congress on the 2nd and 3rd of June, 1917 (it will be remembered that the Secretariat had earlier decided to convene it on the 11th of February, 1917, but the decision was repealed by the Party Executive!).

1st of February, 1917. Part of the Zimmerwald Conference meets at Olten, attended by representatives of organizations invited to the Conference of Entente Socialists (March 1917).

Radek, Zinoviev, Münzenberg, one member of the International (the Spartacus group in Germany, of which Karl Liebknecht was a member) publicly castigate R. Grimm, stating that his alliance with the social-patriots against the Swiss Socialist workers makes him a «political corpse».

Press is silent about this conference.

1st of February, 1917. Platten publishes his first article on the war issue.7 Attention should be drawn to the following two of his statements.

First, Platten writes, literally: «Of course, the absence was felt in the commission of the cool-headed, courageous, and consistent Zimmerwald champion who would have insisted on pigeon-holing the war issue until the end of the war.»

No name was mentioned, but it should not be hard to guess against whom this blow was aimed.

Second, Platten makes this statement of principle:

The war issue is not only a battle of opinions around this question, but is indicative also of a definite trend in the further development of the Party; it is a struggle against opportunism within the Party, and an act of opposition to the reformists and in favour of revolutionary class struggle.

3rd of February, 1917. A private meeting of Centrists (Grimm, Schneider, Rimathe, and others) attended also by Nobs and Platten. Münzenberg and Dr. Bronski are invited but decline.

A decision is adopted to «amend» the majority resolution in a way that materially worsens it and turns it into a «Centrist resolution», especially because §3 is deleted and replaced by a deliberately indefinite and hazy expression.

6th of February, 1917. General meeting of Social-Democratic Party members in Zurich. Main item: committee elections.

Poor attendance, especially on the part or workers.

Platten suggests postponing the meeting. Social-patriots and Nobs object. Proposal is defeated.

Elections are held. When it turns out that Dr. Bronski is elected, social-patriot Baumann announces on behalf of four committee members that he refuses to work with Dr. Bronski.

Platten suggests accepting this ultimatum (submitting to it), proposing (absolutely undemocratically and unlawfully) that the elections be declared invalid. That proposal is carried!!!

9th of February, 1917. Publication of a «new» majority resolution. The signatures: the «Centrists» Grimm, Rimathe, Schneider, Jacques Schmid, and so on, also Nobs and Platten. The resolution has been greatly worsened and §3, as indicated above, deleted.8

The resolution does not even hint at combating opportunism and reformism, or at a firm decision to follow Karl Liebknecht's tactics!

It is a typical Centrist resolution, in which «general», supposedly «theoretical» disquisitions predominate, while practical demands are deliberately couched in such feeble and hazy language that, it can be hoped, not only Greulich and G. Müller, but even Baumann — Zurich will probably deign to withdraw their ultimatum and... amnesty the Party.

To sum up: the leaders of the Swiss Party have solemnly buried Zimmerwaldism in the «marsh».

Addition:

The St. Gallen People's Voice of the 25th of January, 1917 (to which Huber — Rorschach frequently contributes):

It suffices to oppose to this shamelessness [that is, the referendum motivation] the fact that the postponement proposal (7th of January) was made by Comrade Grimm and energetically supported, among others, by Comrades Manz, Greulich, Müller, Affolter, and Schmid.

The Basle Forward of the 16th of January, 1917 reports that the postponement proposal (7th of January) was tabled by the following comrades:

Grimm, Rimathe, Studer, Münch, Lang — Zurich, Schneider — Basle, Keel — St. Gallen and Schnurrenberger [!!? obviously a misprint for Schneeberger?].

The workers have every reason to be grateful to the two papers for listing these names!...

  1. Editor's Note: Reference is to the majority and minority draft resolutions published in the People's Right of the 9th of January, 1917 (No. 7) under the heading Proposals of the Commission on the War Issue. ↩

  2. Editor's Note: Lenin here refers to the referendum on the convocation of an emergency congress of the Swiss Social-Democratic Party to discuss its attitude towards the war. The referendum was initiated by the Left-wing forces following the Party Executive's decision to postpone the Congress indefinitely. On the 23rd of January, 1917, the People's Right (No. 19) published in the «Party Life» column an appeal of the initiating group under the heading Referendum Against Executive's Decision Begins. ↩

  3. Editor's Note: The New Free Newspaper was a newspaper published in Olten by the Solothurn Cantonal Committee of the Swiss Social-Democratic Party from 1905 to '20. It took a Centrist stand in the imperialist First World War. ↩

  4. Editor's Note: The Basle Forward was the organ of the Basle Committee of the Swiss Social-Democratic Party, founded in 1898; it followed a Centrist policy in the imperialist First World War. ↩

  5. Editor's Note: Reference is to Hermann Greulich's article On the Defence of the Homeland Issue in the People's Right, 26th of January, 1917 (No. 22). Lenin quotes §3 of the majority resolution at the beginning of this article. ↩

  6. Editor's Note: The editorial On the Referendum appeared in the «Party Life» section of the People's Right, 27th of January, 1917 (No. 23). ↩

  7. Editor's Note: This refers to Fritz Platten's article The Military Question, published as an editorial in the People's Right, 1st of February, 1917 (No. 27), and continued in the paper's issues of the 2nd, 5th, and 6th of February (Nos. 28, 30, and 31). ↩

  8. Editor's Note: Lenin here alludes to Amendments to the Majority Resolution on the War Issue, published in the People's Right, 9th of February, 1917 (No. 34). ↩